Chili can mean a spicy pepper or a thick, spicy stew made with meat, beans, tomatoes, and chili peppers. It is a popular dish in many parts of the Americas.
“Chili” comes from Nahuatl “chīlli,” the Aztec word for hot peppers. English picked it up through Spanish during contact with the Americas.
The burn you feel from chili isn’t heat—it’s a chemical trick on your nerve endings from capsaicin. Your brain reacts as if you’re touching fire, which is why you sweat and your heart races. Humans are the only animals that seem to enjoy this fake pain on purpose.
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